Bei’ur Koheleth [Commentary to Ecclesiastes]. Hebrew manuscript on paper. Aschkenazic cursive script

FARISSOL, ABRAHAM BEN MORDECHAI

Aschkenaz

19th Century

Verses from Ecclesiastes underlined, followed by commmentary. On front fly, “Transcribed from the autograph manuscript written in Ferrara, 1521.” On back fly, signature of former owner, “Salomon Bonhard”

The text of Farissol’s Commentary to Ecclesiastes was published by Simcha Halevi Bamberger with notes by A. Freimann in: Kovez al Yad, Vol. XII (1937), pp. 1-74. One of the trenchant themes of the Commentary is that one must unflinchingly accept Jewish religious authority on the matter of the immortality of the soul. See David B. Ruderman, The World of a Renaissance Jew: The Life and Thought of Abraham ben Mordecai Farissol (1981), pp. 116-117, 162-163. Abraham Farissol (c.1452-1528) is particularly known for his work regarding the discovery of the New World, Igereth Orchoth Olam (Venice, 1586)